NaturalNews.com – June 3, 2011
by Neev M. Arnell
Prior to the Iraq war, American soldiers in combat zones did not take psychiatric drugs - by 2007, more than 20,000 troops were taking antidepressants & sleeping pills
“If mentally incapacitated troops are being drugged with dangerous, mind-altering drugs and deployed to battle against their will, how can we say that we have a volunteer army?” asked Alliance for Human Research Protection, the national network dedicated to advancing responsible and ethical medical research practices.
This is just one of the many criticisms being levied against the U.S. military in light of its liberal use of prescription medication, which is now being linked to rising suicide rates among soldiers.
A study released by the Army in June 2009 indicated that nearly as many American troops at home and abroad committed suicide in the first six months of 2006 as the number who had been killed in combat in Afghanistan during the same time period (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/…).
An average of 18 American veterans commit suicide every day (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMo…). Now, the increasingly high number of deaths among both veterans and active duty soldiers–including suicides, accidental overdose, and lethal drug interactions–have now been linked to the exponential increase in the prescribing of drugs for post traumatic stress disorder, depression and other psychological illnesses.(http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/vie…)
Prior to the Iraq war, American soldiers in combat zones did not take psychiatric medications, according to PBS Frontline documentary The Wounded Platoon, which aired in May 2010. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front…) But by the time of the 2007 surge more than 20,000 of our deployed troops were taking antidepressants and sleeping pills.
These drugs allowed soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder to remain in combat when they otherwise could not.
“What I use medications for is to treat very specific side effects,” said Army psychiatrist Col. George Brandt. “I don’t want somebody in a helpless mode in a combat environment. I want to make sure I don’t have someone with suicidal thoughts where everyone is armed.”
Well over 300,000 troops have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with P.T.S.D., depression, traumatic brain injury or some combination of those, according to The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/u…). Following the lead of civilian medicine, the military has relied heavily on medications to treat those problems, resulting in more widespread use of drugs in the military than in any previous war.
The aforementioned Army report on suicide recognized that one-third of the troops were taking at least one prescription medication and stated that prescription drug use was on the rise. The report also noted that one-third of the 162 active-duty soldiers who committed suicide in 2009 were taking medication.
Frontline’s The Wounded Platoon looked at the problem of PTSD, depression and prescription medication in the military from the perspective of one platoon from Fort Carson, CO. 18 soldiers from Fort Carson have been charged with or convicted of murder, manslaughter or attempted murder committed in the United States, since the beginning of the “War on Terror,” and 36 have committed suicide.
Jose Barco, who was once known as the hero who saved his fellow soldiers during a suicide-bombing, is now serving a 52-year prison sentence for attempted murder. Barco suffered traumatic brain injury as a result of his heroics and was also diagnosed with PTSD for which he was prescribed nine different medications.
“We have someone who’s been emotionally traumatized, and they’ve got PTSD,” said retired military psychiatrist Stephen Xenakis. “They’re anxious, and they’re depressed, and they’ve got TBI, which means that they’ve got problems in decision making. They can’t think as clearly. They are really vulnerable to just overreacting.”
The rate of PTSD diagnosis at Fort Carson rose 4,000 percent between 2002 and 2010, and the increase in medications being prescribed for both veterans and those in combat rose to meet the demand.
Kenny Eastridge, another platoon member that Frontline spoke with who is in jail for murder and other crimes, was prescribed a cocktail of medications while in combat.
“I was having a total mental breakdown. Every day we were getting in battles and never having a break. It seemed like, it was just crazy,” he said. “They put me on all kinds of meds, and I was still going out on missions. They had me on Ambien, Remeron, Lexapro, Celexa, all kind of different stuff.”
Eastridge was sent to a remote combat outpost for weeks at a time with no medical supervision or mental health provision, despite the recommendation that patients on this medication should be monitored. Frontline footage showed Eastridge’s unstable behavior, which included wandering into Iraqi homes, lying in the people’s beds, and trying to hug local people.
As more soldiers return home to Fort Carson, concern abounds.”We’re all wondering what’s going to happen,” says Colorado Springs psychotherapist Robert Alvarez. “It’s a scary thought, you know, what’s going to happen in this community. Are we going to have more murders? Are we going to have more suicides, or are we going to have more crime? I think the answer to that is probably yes.”
http://www.naturalnews.com/z032598_veterans_suicide.html
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Tags: ambien, american troops, antidepressants, celexa, combat, deaths, depression, drugging troops, Iraq, Lexapro, manslaughter, military, murder, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychiatric drugs, PTSD, remeron, soliders, Suicide, war on terror
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Fosters’ Daily Democrat ethics
A newspapers exist to print the unbiased news for it readers to learn and be well informed. A newspaper exists to print both sides of the story even if the response by the damaged party questions the character of the editor’s choice. The Fosters once gave me an award for my relentless volunteering to help other citizens in the community even at an expense to my own family. In the twenty or more years since Foster’s said thank you in that way I have not changed. Today even more do I find the need and do daily help other citizens in the community and state of NH. I refuse to accept any form of payment for helping other than a thank you. That is why so many years ago I appreciated the Thank You from Fosters. Things changed directly after that award. The Fosters stopped printing my opinion letters because one letter criticized Rod Dougherty and the Fosters for something they wrote. This newspaper is hurting the community by not printing all the facts good or bad. To censor the community from the unbiased news makes the Fosters a rag. I am running for NH State Senate District 21 do the citizens of that community deserve to hear the facts or is it Rod Dougherty’s right to censor for the safety in his eyes of the public. The Portsmouth herald does the same to censor for whatever reason. District 21 is also Portsmouth and this newspaper tells all kinds of facts about my Democrat opponent Fuller-Clark. Lets not leave the Union Leader out for they claim to be the state’s largest but they censor my campaign also. Can protecting the people be so important than the unbiased facts of both sides of the story?
The main theme of my campaign is that the NH Supreme Court covered up the Madbury NH selectmen taking through the trusted power of the people from local resident for the selectmen’s own self profit. The NH SC refused to hear the case because it was Judge Peter Fauver with uncontested documented facts presented to the SC that criminally violated the Constitution to allow the Madbury NH selectmen to continue this dangerous criminal activity. The newspapers in the State of New Hampshire believe it is their duty to protect the citizens of NH from a danger such as me. I do not care if the editor’s like me or not it is their obligation to inform their readers of the unbiased facts. This is my campaign to help the state of NH.
These very same newspapers believe it is their duty to not inform the people of my willingness with my own money saved over years to start a Veteran Chapel where disabled and combat veterans disabled or not can go to try to come home mentally and physically at no cost to them. I just bought eleven acres of land on a pond in Lee NH to do just so. Volunteering to help other citizens is my way of showing gratitude for coming home alive when so many better than I will never get to. Think of the damage these very newspapers we trust is doing to the citizens that believe so much in a better USA. What about the US Military Veteran left out because of editors like Rod Dougherty that will never come home completely.
Peter Macdonald Sgt USMC SemperFi
465 Packers falls rd Lee NH 03824 603-781-3839
“If mentally incapacitated troops are being drugged with dangerous, mind-altering drugs and deployed to battle against their will, how can we say that we have a volunteer army?” They VOLUNTEERED. What the hell did they expect?
Sunday News Parade
An unbreakable Bond is the article, teaches and every single US citizen should read. US Military Veterans Past, Present and Future are the heart and back bone of the USA. A child loses every civilized thought and reaction learned when/if that child graduates from boot camp. That child becomes a team member and will do any act possible and many acts conceived impossible to defend and protect the USA and the team. Boot camp is only the introduction to a life necessary but that no person should ever have to live. The safety of the USA becomes a world of people living with nothing and still being happy. People that have never seen a flush toilet or have limited running water give a smile as we pass through their village is the only thank you that they dare give in fear a VC might be near. The first few months the thought of death or a lost limb haunts every thought every second. One-day compliancy with all aspects of life takes over as this world of death and destruction replaces the reality of the real world (USA). Civilized society cannot/will not accept those that come back alive as many are left to squalor on the streets homeless in conditions comparable to the people in the conflict our US politicians sent us too. Veterans day is here again to what if even one US Military Veteran is passed over with out medical care for injuries received on tour. Having a Veterans Admin that chooses a veteran here and there to leave behind is something this team member cannot accept. The unbreakable bond should be a nation that reads this article and realizes we the US Military Veteran are US citizens also that sees life differently than others.
We are not heroes. We are the men and women that want to enjoy the USA and all she has to offer just as those we did it for. When a US Military Veterans volunteers to help a family from a different town that he does not even know because they called and asked for help it maybe that we care. A 100% combat related disabled US Military Veteran has to have the right in this civilized society to tell the NH Supreme Court when they criminally violate our highest law the Constitution. When the NH government and NH SC use government retribution to stop a disabled US Military Veteran’s free speech something is wrong. To stop any US citizen’s medical care is wrong. To stop a 100% disabled US Military Veterans medical care to stop free speech and the news media censors the facts from the public I think back to the smile on that village child’s face with the hope some day we are not there. NH labeled me a mentally dangerous individual to scare the public using my Marine Corps disabilities to harm me. The people of the USA are in titled to understand what the State of New Hampshire is doing to US Military Veterans on this Veterans Day for if you look it is happen in your neighborhood also.
Reading the “Unbreakable Bond” makes me realize that I am not the only one.
Peter Macdonald Sgt USMC Semper Fi
465 Packers falls Rd Lee NH 03824 603-659-6217